Although this year marks the 20th anniversary of the ENERGY STAR program, lighting was a bit late to the party. It wasn’t until 15 years ago that residential light fixtures got their first ENERGY STAR specification, and 13 years ago that compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) did.

Luminaires
The Luminaires Version 1.1 specification became effective April 1, 2012. It combines the scope of the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Version 1.3 specification and the Residential Light Fixtures Version 4.2 specification.

Only those light fixture models that have been third-party certified as meeting the Luminaires V1.1 requirements now appear on the ENERGY STAR qualified product list. Fixtures qualified under the previous specifications will not be “grandfathered in” to this new specification.

There are nearly 500 qualified luminaires from more than 50 manufacturers, covering over 20 different product types.

Lamps
The new ENERGY STAR Lamps V1.0 specification is still being developed. This new specification will merge the scope of the Compact Fluorescent Lamps V4.3 and Integral LED Lamps V1.4 specifications into one technology-neutral specification.

For draft 1 of the Lamps specification, EPA received 175 pages of comments. These comments are being considered for draft 2, which is anticipated in the next several months.

Certification BodiesUsing the new third party certification (3PC) process, in 2011 Certification Bodies like MET Labs certified 191 CFLs, 357 LED lamps, 166 luminaires, and 1,462 light strings. In 2012, the number of lighting products certified is expected to be even higher.

According to EPA research, CB processing time ranges from 24 hours to two weeks, depending on a certification body’s work load and the completeness of a product submission.

Once a CB certifies a product meets an ENERGY STAR specification, it sends the data to EPA to be uploaded to the qualified products lists (QPLs). Lists are currently updated weekly for bulbs and twice a month for fixtures (around the first and the middle of the month). By the end of 2012, all product lists should be updated on a daily basis.

Upcoming EventsThe next ENERGY STAR products partner meeting is October 22–24, 2012 in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is for lighting, as well as appliance and electronics partners and other stakeholders.

The recent delay in the high-profile new product launch of the Raspberry Pi has reminded electronics manufacturers of a simple truth: Compliance sometimes means exceeding regulatory requirements due to buyer demands.

The iPhone-size Pi is a $25 mini PC that is intended to teach students about programming. Its maker, the UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation, had been operating under the assumption that this type of engineering sample product could be sold in the UK without a CE mark. After all, the rival ARM-based Beagleboard development kit is sold under the same terms without a CE mark, as are the majority of similar prototyping platforms.

The rub here is that the Pi has proved wildly popular, making its distributors nervous about lawsuits. Distribution partners element14/PremierFarnell and RS Components insisted that the device receive a CE mark to indicate compliance with electronic emissions guidelines. Their judgment was seconded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which said the Pi did in fact need to carry the CE marking.

Last week, to everyone’s relief, the Pi passed EMC testing without requiring any hardware modifications. The testing was conducted at Panasonic’s facility in South Wales.

The device passed radiated and conducted emissions and immunity tests in a variety of configurations, as well as electrostatic discharge (ESD) testing. In the lab for all of last week, the Pi is now also reportedly compliant with requirements for United States’ FCC, Australia’s C-Tick, and Canada’s Technical Acceptance Certificate.

Following are recent and near future changes to electrical product regulatory requirements in South Korea.

Effective January 1, 2012, the Korean Communications Commission (KCC) requires radiated emission measurements at the limit, above 1GHz, by the highest internal source of the device and also conducted disturbance testing for devices with telecommunication ports. The limit is the same as CISPR 22:2006.

Effective July 1, 2012, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) will assume responsibility for regulating safety of electrical products sold in Korea, a role currently carried out by KCC. After July 1, KCC will only regulate IT/RF/Telecom products.

Effective January 1, 2013, KCC plans to expand its existing SAR requirements for mobile phones to include all radio equipment that is used within 20 cm of the human body. This harmonizes the Korean SAR requirements with FCC and other international standard requirements. Low powered radio devices (below 20mW) are exempt from this new requirement.

Learn how to gain certification for the Korean market using a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) under Phase I of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Mutual Recognition Agreement for Conformity Assessment of Telecommunications Equipment (APEC Tel MRA).

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The latest news and resources to help electrical product manufacturers comply with regulatory and buyer requirements, courtesy of MET Laboratories. Stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed or by email.